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Reason

Poll: 53% think feds should treat marijuana like alcohol

Opposition to federal interference was even stronger than support for legalization. While 47 percent favored “legalizing marijuana for recreational use” and 53 percent said “the government should treat marijuana the same as alcohol,” 68 percent said the feds should leave state-legal growers alone and 64 percent said the same about state-legal sellers. These results indicate that some people who oppose marijuana legalization nevertheless believe the choice should be left to the states, as a consistent federalist would. Reflecting that tendency, most Republicans and self-identified conservatives supported marijuana prohibition, but most also said the federal government should not try to impose that policy on Colorado and Washington. These findings are similar to those of a CBS News poll conducted last November, except that poll found even stronger federalist preferences among Republicans, 65 percent of whom said states should determine whether marijuana is legal within their borders, compared to 55 percent of Democrats, even though Democrats were more likely to say pot should be legal (51 percent vs. 27 percent). Over all, 59 percent of respondents in that poll said the feds should mind their own business, compared to around 66 percent (averaging the responses for growers and sellers) in the Reason-Rupe poll.

Not just marijuana, but all the other recreational drugs. We have alcohol stores, why not drug stores.

You can’t be opposed to the nanny state telling Americans what they can’t put into their own bodies because they don’t know what’s good for them, then be in favor of the state telling Americans what they can’t put into their bodies because they don’t know what’s good for them. Either you believe the state should make those choices, or the citizen.

Not just marijuana, but all the other recreational drugs. We have alcohol stores, why not drug stores.

You can’t be opposed to the nanny state telling Americans what they can’t put into their own bodies because they don’t know what’s good for them, then be in favor of the state telling Americans what they can’t put into their bodies because they don’t know what’s good for them. Either you believe the state should make those choices, or the citizen.

Looks like the population is smarter than the govt. on this one. Pot is far less intoxicating than alcohol (no such thing as being “falling down stoned”) and far less addicting. (no one ever died withdrawing from THC). There’s no way around the hypocrisy of one being illegal and the other being legal and highly glamorized in the media.

Because once legalized, we can’t grow alcohol in our garden and drink it off the stem. There’ll be little sales (or taxes) from marijuana. Most who want it will have friends who grow it. Marijuana is a gateway crime, teaching hundreds of millions of young people that it’s ethical to break the law. For that reason, among others, it should be legalized.